


your corner's not empty

by seraphecda



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bets & Wagers, M/M, Studying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-07-22 06:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7423453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphecda/pseuds/seraphecda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vector graduated.</p><p>It’s a fucking miracle in and of itself, but somehow Vector (through all his skipping classes and trying every schoolyard drug he could get his hands on) graduated.</p><p>To reiterate, he’s a graduate.</p><p>More specifically, he’s a university graduate.</p><p>(Honestly the jury’s still out on that one.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I just love this stupid character dynamic bye

“Hey Ph.D!”

Kaito turns and stares blankly at the redhead, who all but crashed through his office doors. His hair’s a mess, and he’s waving a folder in his hands stamped with Heartland U’s crest on it.

He swaggers up to his desk with the kind of knowing confidence and Kaito knows Vector doesn’t actually have, and slides the folder across the wood. “Read it and weep,” he says with a grin.

Kaito opens it, eyes glancing down for a moment long enough to read _We hereby certify that... Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) has been conferred to Shingetsu Rei_. “Congratulations,” he intones. “And why are you showing me this?” he adds after a beat.

“Because you said I couldn’t do it and I did.”

“And?” Because whenever Vector’s involved, there’s always something more.

“You owe me a date.”

Kaito blinks, blank stare unchanging. “What.”

“A _date_ ,” Vector says, as if repetition will make it make any more sense. “You owe me one.”

“You finished your degree… for a date with me?”

Vector pushes himself up to sit on the desk and starts to swing his legs back and forth like a child. “You bet me I couldn’t and said if I did you’d treat me to dinner.”

Kaito vaguely remembers this happening, sometime in Vector’s probation year when Vector was being a stubborn asshole about actually learning anything at all. But…

“I take bets seriously,” Vector adds.

Suddenly, a lot of things make a lot more sense.


	2. the beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vector is only at school for one reason and one reason only: because movies make it seem like a good time.

Vector is ready to kick the photocopying machine. It doesn’t work, and he can’t even authorize a print session because he can’t remember his account password and honestly university was a bad idea and Mizael is stupid for telling him that biology’s a bird course.

“Still refusing help?”

Vector glares at the blonde kid beside him, who’s busy refilling ink cartridges for the machine beside his. His nametag reads _Tenjo K._ and it’s pretentious just like his stupid Library Help uniform and his stupid calm attitude and his stupid… everything. He’s just _stupid_.

“Shut up, Kaito,” Vector huffs, throwing his messenger bag on the counters across from the machines.

Right before Vector can even think about it, the kid rolls his eyes. “Don’t kick the tech. Just give me a sec and I’ll help you.”

“Like I need it.”

“When will you accept that I’m ‘here to help,’” Kaito says, pointing to the library’s slogan on his nametag. “Seriously, don’t kick it.”

Vector scowls. “Fine. How do I use this fucking thing?”

Kaito barely smiles in response and stops what he’s doing, standing upright and pointing to the screen at the front of the copier. “You can either log-in by inputting your school ID and password, or,” he gestures to a black box with a slot through it that’s attached awkwardly to the side, “you can swipe your school ID card through here and it goes straight to your print account info.”

Vector stares at him.

“Yeah, it’s that easy,” Kaito deadpans. “Try it.”

Vector narrows his eyes at him and turns to grab his wallet from his bag. He swipes his card and the screen lights up with his print balance and a menu. He takes a slow deep breath. “I hate you.”

“You’re welcome.”

A moment passes and Vector blinks at the machine, realizes there are too many sub-menus to go through, and grimaces. “Kaito?”

“Yes?” Kaito answers, almost too innocently as he grabs a stack of paper refills from the cabinets.

Vector hates himself more. Just by a little. “What do I do next?”

“Well, what are you trying to do?”

“Copy my friend’s bio notes.”

Kaito dumps the batch of paper on the counter. “Mizael, right?”

“Fuck off--”

“I can refuse to help in cases of difficult assholes, you know.”

Vector closes his eyes and counts to ten, not that it ever works. “Yes. Fine. Mizael’s notes.”

Kaito looks thoroughly amused and Vector wants to die. Or punch him. “He told me he was getting you to handwrite them out. Helps the memorization process through muscle-memory and repetition.”

“I don’t want to. So are you gonna help me copy them or not--”

“There are desks all around the library and we have extra pens at the Help Desk. You can buy notebooks from the campus bookst--”

“Help me use this _godforsaken machine_ , you fucking prick,” Vector hisses.

Kaito is positively smirking. “Say please,” he says, crossing his arms. “Or did you not learn basic manners in kindergarten.”

“Please help me you fucking prick. Is that better?”

Satisfied, Kaito leans over. “Are you looking for digital PDF copies that are sent to your email, or a hardcopy?”

“I don’t know. What’s easier.”

“Well you don’t have any money in your print balance, so I’m gonna say PDFs. So you use this option here.” He points something out on the screen and Vector nods. “And then you line up the notebook pages with the grid on the scanning glass and press the big green button to copy it. Then you do that for every subsequent page. When you’re done, they’ll be sent in a batch to your email. Got it?”

“No.”

“Need me to go through it again?” Kaito asks. “A demonstration?”

Vector groans. “Aren’t you paid to do it for me?”

“Not necessarily--”

“Then do it,” Vector says. “When’s your shift done?”

Kaito checks the clock on the wall. “Half an hour?”

“Then you have time.”

Kaito shrugs. “Okay fine. But watch carefully because I’m not doing this again. Where do the notes start?”

~

Making out in the stacks is something Vector once saw in a movie. And, let’s be real, it’s the only reason he’s stepped into the actual library part of Heartland University’s prestigious library.

(Too bad there’s no one to make out with… yet.)

The other reason he’s in the library is because Mizael told him that he booked a study room for them so they could go over some boring material from class. Which, lame, but Mizael’s pretty and honestly a study room? That means some privacy. An entire booked solid hour of sweet, sweet, privacy and Mizael’s pretty eyes.

Vector is pretty glad he decided to follow him into university.

Until he opens the door to the study room and sees Tenjo Kaito.

“What the fuck are _you_ doing here.”

“Oh, good, you’re already acquainted,” Mizael says breezily as he pulls out the chair beside him and pointedly looks at Vector with his aforementioned pretty eyes. They look… not so pretty at the moment. Still hot though.

Kaito looks downright amused and Vector scrunches his nose at him before taking the proffered seat.

“I’m here because I’m doing a favour for Mizael,” Kaito says duly. “And the favour is to help out our local charity case. I didn’t know your real name is Rei.”

“Shut your goddamn mo--”

Mizael smacks him over the head. “Take your own advice, Vector, and please shut up. He’s here to help you not totally flunk out of school. You should be grateful.”

“I’m not flunking--”

“You’re failing all of your classes and it’s your probation year. You could get kicked out,” Mizael says in an attempt to reason, but Vector can tell he’s already hit his bullshit tolerance for the day and he wonders who messed up Mizael’s Starbucks order this morning.

Vector shrugs. “Not my problem.”

Mizael glares at him. “It will be when your parents--”

“Are you seriously trying to bait me with that bullshit right now?”

“Then do this for me,” Mizael says, sitting back in his chair. “One whole hour. That’s it.”

Vector huffs. “Ugh. Whatever. Not like it’ll help at all.”

Kaito takes this moment to dig through his bag. “Good thing I brought some motivation,” he says, like that whole exchange had never even happened. He pulls out a large bag full of caramel squares. “I heard you have a sweet tooth.”

Vector snorts derisively. “If you’re resorting to cheap bribes, can’t we just--”

“No,” Mizael and Kaito say simultaneously.

“I didn’t even say anything yet!”

“You don’t have to,” Mizael says dryly. “Now, let’s get started.”

~

It’s right before their fourth study session, because somehow Vector keeps getting roped into Mizael’s plans that always end up being study ambushes (and he blames Mizael’s stupid pretty eyes for being so convincing), that he gets a text.

_ >> mizael is cancelling, but i’m sure u already know this is a study session. _

_ >> meet me at market. i haven’t had lunch yet and i’m not about to fuck up my stomach just to school u _

It’s an unknown number, but Vector knows immediately that it’s Kaito. Stupid fucking Tenjo Kaito.

Goddammit.

“Pay for me,” Kaito says almost immediately when Vector finds him sitting at one of the high tables.

“Why the fuck would I do that.”

Kaito shrugs. “Oh, I dunno… because I’m doing you a favour?”

“You’re doing Mizael a favour,” Vector corrects. “If you want compensation so bad, why don’t you just go fuck him since you’re so damn close.”

Kaito rolls his eyes, folds his arms, and stares Vector down. “You’ll never graduate like this.” He says it so matter-of-factly, so calmly, and Vector feels his anger spike. “Congratulations on wasting thousands of dollars in tuition, Mizael’s good will, and my time.”

Vector clenches his fists. “You think you’re better than me?”

“Not necessarily… I think you can be better than you are.”

There’s a moment, a solid, tangibly quiet moment, where Vector debates turning on his heel and walking away. He debates it long and hard and feels his hands grip into fists. He debates saying something witty, uncaring, or even just the truth.

"I can't be anything," he finally says.

And Kaito looks down on him, pity in his eyes, and that is Vector’s final straw.


	3. the middle

It’s three in the morning and Vector is staring at his dorm room ceiling, watching the fan turn slowly, creak softly enough that he can just about hear it every fourth cycle along with the sound of his own breath.

Mizael’s fallen asleep at his desk, head in his arms, hair curling over his notebooks.

Better than he is? That’s impossible.

~

Classes pass and they never talk about it again. Mizael doesn’t know, doesn’t ask, but study sessions have gone silent save for the scratch of pens against paper and Kaito murmuring instructions and explaining formulas.

Vector barely listens with glazed-over eyes, but finds himself learning regardless.

Mizael watches him with prying eyes, and Vector wishes he would just fucking look away.

“What’s wrong?” he finally asks one day when they’re in Vector’s dorm room.

The buses have stopped running and the library’s closed and Mizael has decided once again to just sleep over because taxis are expensive and grocery money is more important. Which, on any other night is great because Vector only has one bed (even though Mizael always passes out studying at his desk), but on this particular night it’s…

“Do we have to talk about this right now? I’m dead,” Vector says, flopping onto his bed. “Maybe in the morning--”

Mizael frowns. “If we wait till the morning, you’ll have another excuse,” he says.

(He’s right.)

“I don’t wanna.”

“Don’t be such a child. I know something’s up.”

“Then you’ll be curious forever, I guess.”

Mizael sits next to him and pokes him. “Tell me. Something happened and it’s making you act… normal.”

“As opposed to?”

“Weird, like usual.”

“Wow,” Vector says, rolling his eyes. “Thanks.”

The room is quiet, but that’s nothing new. Everything’s quiet lately. Vector huffs as his fingers play with the ends of Mizael’s pretty blonde hair. Everything’s…

“Vector, you’d tell me if something happened, right?”

“Pft. No.”

“Asshole.”

Mizael doesn’t leave his side, head turned curiously toward him like he’s awaiting Vector’s response at any second, but Vector stares at the ceiling determinedly ignoring him.

“Kaito said something.”

“He says a lot of things, like that cancer needs a bloody supply to survive--”

“What did he say?”

Vector groans, eye shifting to Mizael’s (and they’re so fucking honest like he actually gives a shit). “That I could be better than I am.”

“You don’t believe it?”

“Ha.”

That night, Mizael doesn’t fall asleep at his desk.

~

Vector sits on the counters across from the photocopying machines, watching Mizael copy out pages from the textbook that Vector didn’t buy (because it was fucking a hundred and fifty dollars and who the fuck has that kind of cash?).

“I can’t believe you don’t know how to use these, they’re so easy,” Mizael says as he presses the big green button.

“Yeah, like you--”

“Fuck off, wanna try doing this yourself?”

Vector smirks. “I wanna try doing you.”

Mizael turns around as the machine does it’s thing, irritation lighting his eyes on fire. “Can you stop?”

“Name of your sex tape--”

“Vector.”

“Mizael.”

“Kaito.”

Vector and Mizael both turn to see Kaito standing in the doorway to the copy room.

“I thought we were saying our names, but I guess not,” Kaito says, completely deadpan as he carries the stack of printer paper in his arms toward the cabinets.

“Was that a fucking joke?” Vector asks in disbelief.

“I think it was,” Mizael says with a snort.

They haven’t had a study session in a while and neither Mizael nor Kaito pushed for one. Vector swings his legs back and forth and wonders if they’d talked. He wonders if he was the subject as they chat, exchanging generic pleasantries and talking about classes.

“By the way, Vector,” Kaito says suddenly. “If you can memorize the formulas on the pages Mizael’s copying for you and tell me what functions they all serve by the end of the hour, I’ll give you twenty bucks.”

Vector, confused as he may be, never backs down from a challenge. “You’re on. But if I don’t?”

“Study session, tomorrow at eight in the morning. Mizael’s already booked the room.”

It’s as if they can see the disgust on his face because both Kaito and Mizael exchange amused glances.

“See you tomorrow morning, Vector,” Kaito says, finishing his job of restocking paper and making his exit.

Vector stares at Mizael, who hands him a neat, stapled stack of photocopied papers, and calls back: “I’ll see you in a fucking  _ hour _ .”

~

8am is a lot like sweet torture. Sunrises are pretty, getting to be in the same room as Mizael for an hour is great. Mizael is beside him, reading one of his textbooks and not paying attention because he already knows this stuff, has probably rewritten it in his neat handwriting complete with colour-coded highlighting and subtitles for when he needs to study it again because Mizael is a pretty nerd. Kaito, on the other hand, is…

Vector stares at him and wonders when this’ll be over. He stares at him and wonders when he got such pretty overcast eyes that reminded him of the sea, and when his voice turned to velvet. He swiftly kicks those thoughts aside as he blames them on sleep deprivation and the fact that he drank himself to sleep with cheap beer.

Bad decision, clearly, if thinking Kaito is hot is any indication.

(His eyelashes are blonde and wispy and pretty just like Mizael’s, and it’s distracting.)

Suddenly, fingers snap in front of his face and Vector jumps.

“Are you even paying attention?” Kaito asks, and Vector thinks his reading glasses only accentuate the shape of his eyes and wonders how long Kaito took to pick them out.

“‘Course I am,” Vector mutters.

“What did I just go over?”

“I didn’t say I was paying attention to  _ that _ .”

Kaito frowns. “Enlighten me.”

“You’re… pretty today.”

Kaito blinks. Mizael looks up from his textbook. “What,” they say, simultaneously.

“You’re pretty. But only today, you weren’t very pretty yesterday,” Vector elaborates. “Anyway, is the hour up yet? I’m so booooored…”

He lays his head on his arms on the table and groans for emphasis, watching as Mizael and Kaito exchanged confused glances.

“If you can write out the most basic difference between a cancer that has a blood supply and a cancer that doesn’t, then you can go.”

Vector sticks out his hand. “And I get caramels too.”

“Caramels too,” Kaito agrees.

Vector pushes himself up and uncaps his pen. “You’re on.”

Five minutes later, he leaves the study room with a pocketful of caramels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> vector's got a cruuuuuuuush


	4. midterms

Mizael stays over more often lately. Something about midterms and studying, but Vector just uses it as an excuse to play with his long blonde hair and drag him to the bed when he finally decides it’s time to sleep (because Mizael always complains about his shoulders hurting after sleeping at the desk and Vector is determined to cuddle the fuck out of him in bed).

It’s easier to convince him into his bed lately too, which Vector is only all the more smug about.

It’s late, too late, and tonight Mizael’s laying on the bed, textbook held up in his hands because he’s determined to study even when Vector is doing his best impression of a clingy sloth.

“So babe--”

“Don’t call me that,” Mizael bristles. “It’s sleazy.”

“So Miza,” Vector tries again, pressing his lips to his neck, “when do your midterms start?”

“Next week.”

Vector hums, grazing his teeth against Mizael’s skin. “When’s your first one?”

“Wednesday.”

“Really?”

Mizael shifts and adjusts his grip on the textbook. “Yeah, why?”

“No reason,” Vector says, licking the spot.

Mizael huffs. “Are you seriously about to try and give me a hickey to distract me?” he asks, turning his head to look at Vector.

“Caught me.”

“Fine,” Mizael surrenders, closing the textbook and sliding it onto Vector’s bedside table. “Happy now?”

“I will be when you kiss me.”

Mizael sighs a put-upon sigh. “Can’t you at least notice when I’m trying to ignore a hint?” he asks, adjusting himself in Vector’s clingy arms. “Now I have to.”

Vector grins. “That was the plan.”

Kisses from Mizael were always soft, tentative, fluttering things that gave Vector the best kind of butterflies and made him feel like he could be a sappy romantic. This one is different. It makes him feel hot and ties knots in his stomach.

He barely notices when Mizael pulls away.

“So,” Mizael starts quietly, “when’s your first midterm?”

“I dunno. Probably check in the morning,” Vector mumbles into his shoulder. “Gonna study with Kaito over the weekend.”

“You already set times?”

“Yeah. Figured you’d be too busy to come so we left you out of it.”

“Rude.”

“Whaaat,” Vector whines. “You’re always studying. You’re never  _ not _ studying.”

“Well I’m not studying now,” Mizael says, tilting Vector’s chin up and kissing him again.

~

Vector can’t stand studying. It’s so boring, and Kaito only distracts him with his stupid reading glasses that accentuate his eyes and his stupid hands that keep flipping the pages of some textbook. It’s too early to be awake, but here they are anyway because studying is more important than sleep apparently.

“Are you done the quiz yet?” he asks, looking up from the page, watching as Vector pretends he was mulling over the answer to the next question and not staring out the window of their study room.

He’s not even vaguely close, and Vector stares at the handwritten questions on a ripped-out page of Kaito’s notebook, only finished with three of seven of the neatly printed questions. “No.”

“Then stop watching me and start answering the questions. I’ll buy you lunch if you finish within the next twenty minutes.”

Now  _ that’s _ motivation. “Okay, but it has to be somewhere that doesn’t accept my meal plan.”

“Deal.”

Vector finishes the quiz within twenty-three minutes and Kaito has the nerve to smirk at him as he corrects his answers.

“Seven out of ten. Not bad. I think we’re ready to move on to the next unit.”

Vector wonders when he can crawl back to bed. “Can we take a break?”

Kaito shrugs. “Sure.”

Vector screeches his chair back and grabs his wallet from his bag, checks that his phone is still in the pocket of his hoodie. “I’m gonna grab coffee.”

“Okay.”

He pushes the study room’s door open and walks into the dull chatter of the library’s first floor. There’s three different coffee shops in this building alone, one inside the library, and one just outside the library’s east entrance, but Vector turns the opposite direction and heads for the farthest one.

He flicks through his social media feeds and wonders where Mizael is (at home studying, most likely). He wonders what Kaito takes in his coffee and if he’s a double-double or a straight black. He counts the change in his wallet and ends up taking out his credit card because there’s not enough.

Studying is exhausting.

High school was easy enough, everything was child’s play and Vector barely had to pay attention to know what was going on. It was great. His grades could compete with the top of his class on zero effort, much to Mizael’s misery. It’s why Mizael pushed him into university in the first place. “It’d be a waste,” he’d told him.

(Then he flunked half his classes in first year and was put on probation.)

Vector enters the coffee shop and gets in line. The sweets in the display rack look good, donuts and cake pops and thick slices of cake loaves. He wonders if Kaito has a sweet tooth (because Mizael sure does).

“Large triple-triple, with an ice cube,” Vector orders when prompted, working on automatic. “And a vanilla dip donut.”

He taps his card and shuffles over to the waiting area, grabbing his stuff when it’s ready. He turns back around, toward the library, but pauses in his step for a moment.

(He wonders if Kaito would be disappointed if he skipped the rest of the session.)

He sips at his coffee and frowns. And then continues forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case anyone's wondering why vector seems mellowed out and softer at the edges, the doc for this is called "what if vector was chaotic good"


	5. Chapter 5

_ >> Is studying going well? _

_ >> can we not talk about studying god miza _

_ >> I’m just looking out for u. Have your parents called lately? _

_ >> fuck off _

_ >> Again, looking out for u. Have they or have they not? _

_ >> gfdi miza _

_ >> yes they fucking called. it was a nightmare. _

_ >> Wanna talk about it? _

_ >> no _

_ >> but _

_ >> im being cut off _

_ >> so i need to earn the scholarship back or u wont see me around next year _

_ >> happy? _

_ >> Want me to come over? _

_ >> leave me the fuck alone im gonna figure it out _

_ >> itll be fine _

_ >> im fucking fine _

~

There’s a scarily tangible moment when one of the librarians comes into the studying room to let them know that the library is closing in fifteen minutes that Vector wonders exactly how much Kaito knows about him.

He’s friends with Mizael, after all.

“We should pack up after this one,” Kaito says when the librarian leaves, closing the door behind her.

Vector’s teeth clench, a dull pain in his set jaw. “Kaito?”

“Yeah?”

Their eyes meet across the table and Vector’s chest goes tight. He didn’t have a plan. He didn’t have anything to say. What was he supposed to say?

“Explain that last thing to me again. I wanna make sure I got it,” he says instead, pointing to something in the textbook laid between them. “It’s fucking confusing,” he adds, because everything sounds forced.

“Sure.”

Vector doesn’t hear the explanation, only the lilt of Kaito’s voice and the swipes his fingers make across the page. He feels his heart pound loudly in his ears, drowning everything out. His palms itch and he wants to call Mizael.

He doesn’t want to call Mizael, what is he talking about, he doesn’t fucking need _pity_. Fuck.

Kaito looks up at him and their eyes meet again, sending a jolt of electricity through him (because Kaito knows everything, why else would he be tutoring him right?). “You got all that?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“Fuck off, I got it okay?” Vector mutters, flipping the textbook shut and shoving it in his bag. He’s about to do the same with his pens and notebooks but Kaito won’t stop staring at him and god fucking _stop_.

“What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay.”

Vector wasn’t sure what he expected. Kaito always minded his business unless it had to do with study sessions. It was Mizael that tugged at his edges, tried to peel off the layers. He’s not even sure what he wanted.

“What will I get if I get nineties on all my exams?”

“What?”

“What’s the bet?”

Kaito’s lips twist. It’s not a smile. “I don’t know. What do you want?”

To stay here, in school. With people who actually gave a fuck about him.

Vector fiddles with the strings on his hoodie. “Cake.”

“Okay, deal.”

Vector forces the grin on his face. “Deal.”

~

The red LED of his alarm clock blinks into twenty-four hours since the call dropped and Vector blinks back at it. He can’t sleep and he kinda wishes Mizael were here, in his tiny bed, telling him it was all going to be fine and that his life wasn’t going to hell.

(Why was he the disappointment, the failure, the only child that his parents had, the disowned heir.)

Ignoring things had been easy. Screening their calls had been easy. Being what they thought he’d be was easy (because failing is easy when you never try and that’s what probation is for anyway, right?). Everything was so easy until they disowned him. Everything was easy until they cut off his credit line (but it was fine because he’d withdrawn enough to last long enough and he still had his university meal plan and it was fine).

He wonders when it was that he fucked up. If it was during high school, when Mizael dumped his cigarettes into the school's incinerator and made the school smell like cancer for a week. Or maybe it was when he somehow managed to pull off a full-ride scholarship that made him think he was safe.

He checks his phone, for the messages that aren’t there, for the voicemail notification that never goes away because he never checks it because he knows what they all say (and he knows what he doesn’t want to hear).

He wants to call Mizael.

Or… Kaito.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so like, there IS foreshadowing for this chapter's events but like, lol, yeah, this is kind of a dump. sorry.


End file.
